good ening, rachel. good evening, ed. thanks to you at home for staying with us the next hour. 's n 40 ys o f tiay even though it feels every year like the election season gets longer and longer and longer, this last homestretch between the start ofhe debate until election day, this is always about the same amount of time. at least in recent elections. and so off on this date in 2004, whh was the last time we had anum pdeun for re-election, at this time on this date in that campaign, the campaign you might remember was all about iraq. >> at odds with the hopeful picture described by the president. mr. bush was challenged during an interview with fox ne about last sprins mission acli arae on the "uss abraham lincoln." >> would you do it again? >> you mean have the sign up there? >> no, no, go in there if the flight jacket? >> absolutely. >> youould?

>> i'm saying to the troops on this carrier and elsewhere, thanks for serving america. absolutely. >> reporter: senator kerry today noticed since that speech, more than 900 soldiers have diein iraq. >> so that was this date in the campaign in 2004. this date in the campaign in tidof mowugh we we rit the financial sector, still at the center of the campaign in 2008, at the first debate between john mccain and barack oba, which was this date four years ago, the focus was the war. in fact, both wars. >> do you, senator mccain, much has been said about the lessons vieam what do you see as the lessons of iraq? >> i think the lessons of iraq are very clear that you cannot have a failed strategy. thanks to this great general david pa tray yous, they are succeeding and winning in iraq. >> whether we should have gone in the war in the first place. six years o ood a opposed this war. we hadn't finished the job in afghanistan. we hadn't caught bin laden. we hadn't put al qaeda to rest.

and as a consequence, i thought that it was going to be a distractio no senator mccain and president bush had a very different judgment. >> so that was this date, 40 days out from the election in '08 and 40 days out from the election in '04. in '04 the campaign was consumed with the debate over aleast one of our wars. 40 days out from the election in '08, in e mit ofhe fiialt tamn was consumed with both of the wars. now it's 2012 and we're 40 days out from the election this year and we are n quite as consumed with that issue, but we are still in one of those wars. and not being consumed with that issue turns out is not a mutua cision by e twcaat i mean, the democratic side, president obama, talks about the war in iraq that he ended and the war in afghanistan he is still waging a the time. he brings it up all the time. it is his republican opponent, mr. romney, who has generally ne his best to avoid the hao ct whe .

credit's due. today while he still did not go there directly, at least, at last, finally, today mitt romney got close to the subject. >> we have huge numbers of our men and women that are returning from conflict that are seeking counseling, psychological counseling, and can't find tt se wn sy. and, of course, record numbers of suicides. this is a crisis. >> that was mitt romney speaking today in springfield, virginia, to the american legion. and, no, he is still not apparently able to say anything about the war directly, but at least today where u sahi th hd ioats war has produced an outcome of war. which is american war veterans. neither the war nor its veterans were mentioned, of course, in mr. romney's speech to the nation upon becoming his party's nominee for president. he's trying to fix the veterans part othat oversight. emcae al aas cdidate still the war he would be taking over as commander in chief. there were these dueling appearances in virginia before military heavy audiences in that military heavy state.

president obama talking about ending the war in iraq, talking about his strategy in afanistan. prenamle a minute tv ad today. sort of his closing argument for his campaign. in the two-minute ad he talks about what the country should do withhe savings that we will obtain when we eventually end the war in afghanistan. t while mr. romney did mention tera is viinia speech to hd saat would do to improve the problem that he identified for veterans. in fact, the way he talked about it indicated he might not know even which part of the government is supposed to fia d tillanriim that. alk out what he would do as commander in chief. he still can't bring himself to talk about the war that we are still in that is now producing new veterans every day and is due to keep ing that for another couple of years. in any other election year, with anher nde ware capable of holding his own on this issue, we would be having a

debate on this issue. we would be having a big national debate on this subject right now. because it very obviously needs debating. "wired" magazine today published e mar ternal assessme from afghanistan. and it shows sort of inadvertently what the effect has been of the big obama troop surge in the war. in 2009, after he was inaugurated, and there was a suertime surge of violence and attacks in afghanistan, president obama tookeveral tee ewamican to do an strategy in the war. you'll remember that he announced that the end of that review, at the end of 2009 in december, that he was going to send tens of thousands more american troops into afghanistan. une bamoumey said, was to so here's the data he was looking at in tes of what the taliban's momentum was when he made his decision to send the surge. what you're looking at there on the left is the calendar year. it's what the military in

afanistan calls emy initiated attacks. ale ars allightin afghanistan all have that general sort of pattern where it peaks in the summer and drops in the winter. that's what they call the fighting season in afghanistan. looking at that, see what the overl level was. that was the first calendar year president ama s iden ter okinat tse numbers he decided to do the surge. that's the level of violence he was looking at when he sent more troops at the end of that year. now, three years later after the surge has ended, this is the level of attacks in th o20nd0 ngr in 2012. rge,ight, we endured this level of enemy-initiated -- that's during the surge. we endured that level of enemy-initiated attacks. now after the surge, after all of that blood and treasure and sacrifice, we have a new level arich is higher than when so that's for enemy-initiated attacks. here's the same number for

executed ied attacks. bombs in afghanistan, right? here was the rather outrageously high numbers of bos in afghanistan in 2009 when prenams ng decision about the surge. these are ieds. here's the level now. here's what we went through during the surge years. the interim years. that's 2010 and 2011. so, you know, 's possible to spin this as, oh, look, 2012 is slightly better than last ar, s igh, t? that wasn't the point. the idea was that it was supposed to get better than when we started the surge. this deadline that the president set for leaving at the end of 2014 was prefaced on the idea that the surge would have created some better environment from which it woulmake sense we could leave because things tpre rondetter. ingsfterhe sge are worse than before the surge, if things are not going to get better by the time we are set to leave, then why are we sticking with that as still being the time to leave? when the pentagon announced the end of the surge last week, when they announced the surge was over, they talked less about blunting taliban momentum and more about how the surge helped train lots of afghan security

forc. inorot ted afghan security forces is a way afghanistan could get more safe. but right now it's also a way americans get killed. by the afghans we are training and arming. afghan troops are turng around and killing american troops they're supposed to be working with at such a rate now that the training and joint operations between the two forces were halted this month. and have oy now stard scbap. that's the circumstances in which 68,000 americans are putting their lives on the line right now while you watch this tv show. 68,000. there is a debate to have here about what we are doing in afghanistan. thingsre worse aer the surge than they were before the surge. at w theurgeor why es t deaine r leaving stay the same if the surge was supposed to make things better and it didn't? if the republicans had picked a candidate who was capable of engaging in this debate, we would be having this debate as a country. we did it inhe last two ectis wh we re awa westat b we apparently can't do it in this election because mitt romney has nothing to say on this. it's not a debate. it's one guy talking and nobody

answering. other republans below the presidential candida level are willing to have this debate. this is from "the tampa bay me r and over, every time the subject of pulling troops out of afghanistan, republican congressman bill young has voted to stay the course. he opposed resolutions to withdraw and even a resolution to set a timetable for withdrawal. but not anymore." "i think we should remove ourself fr afgsts quy e " ys congressman young. "i just think we're killing kids that don't need to die." this is the longest serving republican member of cgress. he chairs the subcommittee that funds the pentagon in the house. he describes himlf as a stay the course politician, since the daf vim but he now says he is done. he is over it. and you know what? he's not alone. most americans are done. we are over it. more than two-thirds of the cotry says the u.s. should not ymanatnoa hanistan

partisan figure. when you're looking at 69%, that's too high to be a partisan figure if nothing else. there's a political debate to have here between two responsible, compeng ideas for what to do in the longest war in american history that's already in year 11 andhais not nlato nyethis year d that and that is not slated to end until the end of the year of that. that, right now, is the mocratic party's position as embodied by the democratic president. does the republican party ha a competing idea? isiekfohiws. election and we still don't really know what governor romney wants to do as president. that should make you worry. >> senator jim webb, former navy secretary, a vietnam war veteran, spoke with president obama today in virginia beach. and he went right atr. romney on feiolane . and he is -- he's right there when he says that we don't know what mr. romney would do if he became president. mr. romney has said recently and vaguely that he supports what president obama is doing in

afghanistan in terms of there being a timene f leaving but tine lngthsaid he was agnst past. so really who knows? he's not even trying. the closest we've gotten to any competing cogentepublican position on the war is probably what we got from senor john mccain at the republican convenon when he said that the afanisn wajustho't he also thinks that the iraq war shouldn't have ended. so i'm not sure that it's a politically viable position. even if it is an internally cogent one from the senator. for this year's nominee, it's apparently jusnogoing to happen. t less he star it w. 40 days out, mitt romney did get as close as he gets to talking about the issue today. in that he spoke before a group of veterans and talked about a concern about veterans. even if he didn't say what he wanted to do about that concern. mr. romney, in fact, implied th the sequester that might resu ifecuhas running mate paul ryan voted for, he implied that would hurt

suicide prevention programs for veterans even though the v.a. would be exempt from that, so i'm not sure he even understood what it was he w talking about. but at least he tried. at least veterans got mention enitn'keense in policy terms. you do know that defense and veterans are two different -- at some point it shou be possible with 40 days left to say veterans have to be more than just an applause line. right? you n't just get to use em fophope decommissioned battleship you used as a backdrop when you introduced paul ryan inexplicably in front of a battleship, other time when you didn't mention the war. even iyore not willing to at wld btaking over, re veterans are not a hypothetical construct. the way they're treated is not an esoteric consequence of how we feel about them as a naon or how much military spending we have which is how mitt romney

described it today. 40s oufrhect with the israeli prime minister drawing an actual redline on a wiley coyote acme style bomb at the united nations today when talking about iran. 40 days t with the surge in afghanistan looking like it did the opposite of what it was supposed t, 40 days out with "the new york times" reporting ti sitlegaidea is to have president romney rescind the ban on torture on his first day in office. that's their big idea. that will help. 40 days out from the election, there has to be a way to build on this one small thing this republican campaign for the presidency seems capable of ndling wheites t naalurmas. ifot for the country, if not for the candidate, then for the country we should try to be optimistic about this, right? mitt romney showed today he is capable, at least, of mentioning veterans and how veterans get treated even if he doesn't totally understand the issue. let's start there. the fact he can handle that much, we can at least take as a starting point. i mean, in previous campaigns,

yeah, we've been able to have debates about the wars. this year the republican not capable of handling that. maybe he can handle this. here's a simple idea. an american soldier getsille in w that soldier's family gets a payment. dependency and indemnity compensation for surviving spouses and children. we're sorry your husband, your father, your wife was killed. from the u.s. government. you think this would be one of the less partisan inflected things we do as a country, right? pat ak svi spous and children. from time to time, that payment gets adjusted to reflect increases in the cost of living. right? that makes sense. one of the least controversial things you couldossibly aginthe itta rn ain. well, a bill to adjust that payment for the cost of living was brought to the senate floor last thursday. it was expected to go ahead. no muss, no fuss, who's going to argue with that? it was blocked by someone in governor romney's party. an unnamed republican senator surviving spouses and children's

payment for soldiers killed in the war. the same hold is also affecting e disability payments to soldiers who are wounded in the war. someepubcanais blocking this. we don't know who. governor romney, here's a place to start. you are now the leader of the republican party. i realize you're having a hard time getting the training wheels off when it comes to natnal curity, but here's an ea e. should that senator from your own party lift that hold on the cost of living adjustment to the payments to those people who we sort of owe it to? should a republican senator who's holding this up keep that hold in place or drop it? you're the leader of that party. do youave anything to y on th here's another one. veterans jobs corps bill we talked about last week on this bill, a bipartisan bill, iraq and afghanistan veterans have an unemployment rate 35% higher

than the rest of the country now. this bill comes to the senate floor and is blocked by republican senators. governor romney, you are now the leader of the republican party relio a vensn yan bring urself to talk about the war and even when you plainly don't understand the issue you're discussing. still, this is kind of an easy one. you could take a position on the veterans jobbill. do you think the senators from your own party should stop blocking the veterans job corps bi? one of the million times tha you relaunched yourself nc u tesio y after the conventions, you said the way you were going to relaunch is start getting specific. let's get specific. you won't get specific on the war. you're obviously willing to mention veterans to get applause. why don't we sta t? whr otheyot would be great for the cntry. we are 40 days out. hope springs eternal. maybe this campaign can yet live up to what our politics are supposed to be. and what on the issue of the wars they have always previously been before you became one of the nominees and couldn't handle it. our polics are supposeto be way sol proems. wegoob. do you have anything to say about how to fix them?

he news starts with arthritis pain and a choice. take tylenol or take aleve, the #1 recommended pain reliever by orthopedic doctors. just two aleve can keep pain away all day. back to the news. just two aleve can keep pain away all day. mr. margin? don't be modest, bob. you found a better way to pack a bowling ball. that was ups. and who called ups? you did, bob. i just asked a question. it takes a long time to pack a bowling ball. the last guy pitched more ball packers. but you... you consulted ups. you found a better way. that's gis. ats in. find out what else ups knows. i'll do that. you're on a roll. that's funny. i wasn't being funny, bob. i know. ♪ that nobody else could do

you know, underneath the official campaigns there's a whole lot of money and a whole lot of weird. we're going to be looking into that with one of the dark weird money guys for "the interview" tonight. tonight. that strght ea when you take a closer look... ...at the best schools in the world... ...you see they all have something very interesting in common. they have teachers... ..as a rul their stusace hr l. of their subjects. let's develop more stars in education. let's invest in our teachers... ...so they can inspire our students.

let's solve this. how did i get here? dumb luck? or good decisions? ones i've made. ones we've all made. about marriage. children. money. oumorrow. 'sgoecns. o matters most to you says the most about you. massmutual is owned by our policyholders so they matter most to us. massmutual. we'll help you get there. four years ago i said i'd end the war in iraq and we did i said we'd wind down e war in afghanistan in a responsible wa and we are. yove g nowcr the new york skyline. al qaeda's on the path to defeat.

bin laden is dead. >> i happen to subscribeo merostthn's m p i want to have a military that's so strong no one wants to test it. you see, you want to -- >> president obama and mitt romney both making the case to veterans in virginia today. the present talking about ending our trillioll war eaventually, and his opponent talking about ronald reagan. joining us now, john stanton, washington bureau chief at "buzz ed" and it's been way too long since we've had you on show. congratulations on your move,vy way, how is "buzz feed"? >> it's awe? >> one of the things y did nd cntis greyhound bused down there, and sort of went out of your way to talk to regular on the street folks who were not necessarily getting, having their opinions plundered by pundits. when you're doing sort of "man on the street" talking to people about polics, do people ever talk about the wars? >> thedo. tag,tirl was in

savannah and talking to church people that were feeding the working poor and homeless people. there were a lot of veterans there. some of the people i talked to on the bus were veterans. they feel like their plight as the working poor in this inoue areonis really president obama talks about it, sort of generally, his accomplishments, but he doesn't talk about so much going forward and what's going to happen. i think lot of people have become fatigued with it. even these people, some of them have gone through it, or their families have gone through i ev there sofed deal with it almost. they want it to go away. >> the going forward part of it is the part i'm really hung up on. looking at those surge numbers today, i'm not sure if our graphs totally showed it the way we laid those out. the violence the president was looking at in 9 when he surged tr, w n we spent a lot of blood and time and lives to get to a situation that's worse. the idea was it would get better and that's how we would tail out and live. it's hard to imagine that that

policy isn't a matter of debate. do you feel like not only talking to voters, looking at ysesgeergn, in the next 40 >> neither campaign wants to talk about it. mitt romney is doing barack obama a bit of a favor by not engaging him on this thing. romney has difficulties but doesn't have any real experience, himself. paul ryan is a domestic gu he doesn't do a lot of foreign policytuff. by not talking about it, it lets obama off the hook a little bit because there is this problem of what happens next after the surge over? you know, what happens with pulling outhe oo do we pull them out earlier like bill young is talking about? do we keep them in longer in that debate is not happening. you know, i don't think either candidate, frankly, probably had a particularly good answer for th. i k 'st of why we're seeing neither one of them

really engaging hard on what's going to happen next in the war. >> the president is talking about the new tower on the new york skyline. that tower is not done. talking about savings from ending t war in afghanistan. that waroesn't end until the end of 201 anybody running against somebody who's taking those positions provided they had the slightest bit of confidence in our own position, it seems like a place to go. but i wonder if you see the romney campaign potentially bringing somebody else on who can handle it? any sort oheaveight >> ty cod have brought in condi rice, brought in former generals, people from the bush administration who were not neocons. >> second-term folks. >> they haven't done that yet which is surprising. when they went to the domestic focus on theice id nd or bri somebody in. that is what joe biden did for obama in '08. that was the counter to john mccain. and they haven't done that. and i -- it's going to be difficult for them tdo that in

the next couple weeks. and gog into that la debate e ey'rgoing to b talking about this stuff, this is going be an issue, they're going to need to frame that up before they get there or it's going to be difficult for them to have much of a debate among, no, i'm better, i'm worse. >> i feel like we're in an unsustainable spot. these issues areeing forced to dssevf can't be forced into the politics. i feel like reckoning is coming on this in political terms. john stanton, "buzz feed's" d.c. bureau chief. you do great work. >> pleasure to be here. all right. are you a college student? do you know any college students? do you have any sense of how college students will vote this ar itheyote? a buncof political vigilantes who know how college students are likely to vote this year have figured out how to stop students from doing it. it is a very simple strategy and it is very stupid, and that's next. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550let'st low-cost investing. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550at schwab, d w-cost investment options-- tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 like our exchange traded funds, or etfs

tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 which now have the lowest tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 operating expenses tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 in their respective tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 lipper categories. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 lower than spdr tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and even lower than vanguard. tdd#: 1-0-345-2550 tdd#1-342550 m wsc, tdd#1-80345-2550 your portfolio has tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 a better chance to grow. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and you can trade all our etfs online, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 commission-free, from your schwab account. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 so let's talk about saving money, tdd#: 1-800-345-25 with schwab etfs. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 schwab etfs now have the lowest operating expees tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 call 1-800-4schwab in tirespectivelipper cor tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 or visit schwab.com tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 to open an account today. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 funding is easy tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 with schwab mobile deposit. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 investors should consider tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 carefully informatio tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 contained in the prospectus, tdd#: 1-80345-2550 including investment objectives, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 risks, charges, and expenses. you can obtain tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 a prpectus by vising tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 www.schwab/schwabe tdd#: 1-800-342550 please read the prospectus tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 carefully before investing. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 ♪ [ male announcer ] how do you engineer

♪ you give it bold new styling, unsurpassed luxury and nearly 1,000 improvements. introducing the redesigned 2013 glk. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exception offers thrgh mercedes-nz ncseesee your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exception offers droid does. and does it launch apps by voice while learning your voice ? launch cab4me. oid does. droid does. with verizon, america's largest 4g lte network, and motorola, droid does. get $100 off select motorola 4g lte smartphones

i waited, i voted. that's all that matters. >> at college, this was not your ordiry a nighter. 'mlio ang as it takes for me to vote. >> reporter: hours after the polls were scheduled to close in ohio -- >> i've been here since 4:30. >> reporter: hundreds of student, professors and neighbors were still stuck in line, some here for more than ten hours. i'm not going to leave. i'm st gng tkee y cs. >> reporter: why the wait? for 1,300 voters here, just 2 ballot bths available. >> people were voting about 40 per hour, so you do the math.

>> in the '04 election, republican president george w. bush won the crucial ste of ohio with 50.8% of the vote. an w sd i office. in certain parts of ohio, for certain groups of people who tend to lean democratic, voting in that election that year meant waiting if lines for ten hours or more. for voters in mostly tiase ndceerican precinc event. in precincts used by college students, voting was an all day and into the night affair. the polls simply were not set up to accommodate everyone who wanted to vote. particularly democratic leaning thisime ound, the tion raag mll dd on ohio and the same key democratic constituencies are again finding that trying to vote is a challenge. and i use the word challenge on purpose. as we reported earlier this month, the tea party group in ohio called the voter integrity prt mshaou 730,000 suspect names that it wants purged off the voter rolls

in ohio. 730,000. we've now started to get a better sense of who this tea party group is challenging in terms of their registration and their right to vote. lo at is. "t names selected for purging include hundreds of college students, trailer park residents, homeless people, and african-americans in counties president obama won in 2008." "the l.a. times" reporting today the tea party repoer vigilantes are hone in on college students in particular. the ohio voter integrity project challenged the voting rights of college studts aohiotate aner kst and on and on and on and on. you have to give your name and state some kind of reason why you think the person you're challenging shouldn't be allowed to vote. you have to fill in this form, sign it under penalty of election falsification. you give the reason, y sign thrmu i so what's the reason this self-appointed tea party group is giving for challenging the voting rights of all of these students at all these ohio colleges? well, "the l.a. times" reports the reason is, "failure to

specify dorm room numbs." rnus? yes, it's legal to register to vote at your college if you live there, that's where you live. that's where you get to vote. students register to vote using their dorm addresses and this tea party vigilante group is trying to get the students thrown off the rolls and banned from voting r listing their dorm but not their dorm room number. thsilvinhe "so far, every county election board that has reviewed the dorm room challenges found them invalid." every single one of those college kids ran the risk of being disenfranchised and every county worker who fielded that challenge gothat much more ttrefor the election and making sure it runs smoothly and making sure people aren't disenfranchised and making sure the lines aren't too long. we are less than 40 days out. we are out -- well, we are 40 days out. the people who want your vote arre, allyy t now. so are the people who want to take your vote away. they're busy, too. if you are one of the millions of men

who have used androgel 1%, there's big news. presenting androgel 1.62%. both are used to treat men with low testosterone. androgel 1.62% testosterone replacement therapy. it raises your testosterone levels, and... is concentrated, so you could use less gel. and with androgel 1.62%, you can save on your monthly prescription. [ male announcer ] dosi and application sites between these pructs differ.

omndldsh aid contact with application sites. discontinue androgel and call your doctor if you see unexpected signs of early puberty in child, or, signs in a woman which may include changes in by hair or a large increase in acne, possibly due to cidental exposure. men with breast cancer and women who are, or may become pregnant or are breast feeding should not use androgel. serious side effects include worsening of an enlarged prostate, possiblincreased risk of prostate cancer, lower sperm count, swelling of ankles, feet, or body, enlarged or painful breasts, problems breatng ngleep ndodtsn the legs. tell your doctor about your medical conditions and medications, especially insulin, corticosteroids, or medicines to decrease blood clotting. talk to your doctor today about androgel 1.62% so you can use less gel. log on now to androgeffer.com and you cou pay as little t dollars ath for androgel 1.62%. what are you waiting for? this is big news.

begi with back pain and a choice. take advil, and maybe ha to take up to fourn a day. or take aleve, which can relieve pain all day with just two pills. good eye. the website realclearpolitics is one of the places that aggregates poll numbers and offers averages for w specific races are going and specific stas. based onhose averages reeaiticchanged its

ranking of five different u.s. senate races. since the end of the democratic convention. prior to the convention, they listed tse three states as leaning republican in senate races. they listed arizona and nevada and wisconsin as all leaning republic ll, tharl d into the tossup category. they no longer lean republican. now who knows. before the democratic convention, the two states that -- the two states they had considered tossups, too close to call, were ohio and michigan. well, now they have been shifted into the leans democratic category. so they' shifted five senate sce toniond al thifts have been toward the democrats. a political scientist named larry sabato at the university of virginia also promised probably the most famous individual person in the country who has long done this kind of raing d chteng races. today in addition to moving five swing states in the direction of president obama, mr. sabato moves others. three states moved in the republican direction.

connecticut moved to tosp. montana moved to leans republican. e d ly ea democrat/independent. so three of the 11 senate races he moved moved in the republicans' direction. larry sabato moved eight senate races the other way toward the democrats. 8 of the 11 moved toward the democratic candidate. 40 ys y t, th a trend. and voting is already under way in most parts of the country. for people who are favored to win their race, must feel great right now, right? because it's sort of almost t pe wreored to lose right now, they are potentially facing being cut loose their donors. and that is happening to some people who you might not expect to be getting cut loose. that's next. ♪

♪ ♪ 'rck it's not every day you find a companion as loyal as a subaru. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. governor of getting it done. u ho e. with a deadline. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. yes, it is, business pro.er ] yes, it is. go national. go like a pro. ♪ [ male announcer ] this is karen and jeremiah. they don't know it yet, but they're gonna fall in lo,

get marrd, have a couple of kids, [ ldlain mto cry and live a long, happy life together where they almost never fight about money. [ dog barks ] because right after they get married, they'll fi some retirement people who are paid on salary, not commission. they'll get straightforward guidance and be able to focus on other things, like ea other, ch'tkeience. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade.

trick question. i love everything about this country! including prilosec otc you know one pill each morning treats your frequent heartburn so y can enjll this greandouasof like demolition derbies. and drive thru weddings. so if you're one of those people who gets heartburn and then eats day after day, block the acid with prilosec c.. and don't get heartburn in the first place. [ me un] pi acrn 24 hours. zero heartburn.

of the race in the swing states. here's the new polling data we got today. new suffolk university poll showing president obama in rginia up by two points. also brand new nbc/"wall street journal" marist polling on three other swing states showing president obama in nevada up by owprenam n hampshire up by seven. and showing president obama in north carolina also up by two. because early voting has already started in a majority of swing states, and in a majity of

states, period, it's not just a get excited cliche now to say election day is upon us. really, seously. geci it's upon us. it's already started. you can tell it's already started is in part because we're in the triage period of the call pain. the time of the election year when people who are spending nein hopes of effecting the eltion outme srt cng r esgi their bets and use their money instead in places they think it will make a difference. "the hill" newspaper reporting this week the republican party's house campaign committee had not yet served any ad time for a hal ncntubn congressmen. a sign that, quote, congressmen in question -- canceled two weeks of its scheduled ad buy for a north carolina democratic incumbent seen as vulnerable. quote, a sign he thinks he's a lost cause in the newly drawn heavily republican dtric ashis ocesaro forward, the emotion starts to

ride high for the candidates getting cut off. this ithe end of the campaign. if your funding is getting cut off, it could be the end of the line for your candidacy. pele get touchy at political triage time. they freak out. sometimes the way the freak-out manifests is the reporting gets reversed. yesterday in "the hill's" reporting in start of the triage season, congressman joe walsh of illinois, among e incumbents being triaged out of funding by reic h cig committee given the latest polling shows him losing to tammy duckworth by 14 points didn't seem a surprising notion that the house campaign committee for the republicans might cut old joe walsh loose. i don't know what happened overnight, but this morning, new news on that. the cug loat all. after yesterday's reporting that he was getting cut loose, today the republican house campaign committee says they are reserving that time for joe walsh. political triage is interesting

to watch. right? akrethoin ou just hohighhe campaign. but, of course, this year the money is not just coming from the candidates and the parties' campaign committees. this year a huge amount of the money being cycled into the campaign comes from superpacs and other outside groups, groups at presumably will be going someriagg ofheir before long. right now the news from the dark money world is mostly just about how much of it there is. and there is a lot of it. on the democratic leaning side, the billionaire george soros announced today he's giving 1 million bucks to a superpac that supports presidentbama and a half million bucks to superpacs suorting democtic congressional candates. heubn inde ad buys, in the final stretch of the campaign. see them on the screen. multimillion dollar ad buys in some states. some states, they're buying ads in states that neighbor swing states. this ad madey the american future fund. see, they're buying me in minnota, not nessaly atut med markets they're buying time in in minnesota they think overlap

into wisconsin and parts of iowa. so it's a wato buy wisconsin and iowa on the cheap. they'll be buying time in minnesota, but they'll be seen in these swing state -- by the ing atvote in wa a wisconsin, trying to get more bang for their advertising buck. bargain hunting makes sense if you're looking to get in on the 2012 campaign ad wars with this much time left. it also makes sense in terms of understanding how effective the dark meyroups are going to beompad to al campaigns. the "washington post" is up with a piece this week on an underreported advantage that the obama side has over the romney side. romney's financial advantage is beuse thesimo of cash being spent on his behalf by the republican party and by outside interest groups. he has more superpac money working for him. but president obama has more of his own campaign money than the romney campaign has to spend. and it tur out not all money

is created equal. seorr campaign, is easily, more easily spent and sometimes more effectively spent than the superpac money. local tv stations, see, are required to give the campaigns, the real campaigns their best deals on advertisi time. there's no such requirement in terms of the way they treathe e hin " reporting that in one ohio ad buy, set to run right before the election, the obama campaign is paying $125 for a tv spot. that spot is costing a conservative superpac $900. $125ersus $900 for the same at hma fei superpac. what that means effectively is mr. romney and his supporters may have fewer resources than it appears they have because things will cost more for them than they do for the obama campaign. when your campaign is so fueled by supercs a outde mey, you get less bang for your buck than if you had more of your own money. being fueled by outside money

carries a more ominous risk than the fact you're not going to have any bargains. you also have do cedcontrol to the supeacs when it come triage. among other things. in terms of cutting their losses and hedging their bets and pulling their money out of unwinnable races, the superpacs have their own agendas, right? mitt romney campaign ineve going to cut and run from mitt romney. but uldn theupercs a mentthllstayhe way they are just decide mitt romney is running an unwinnable campaign, their money might be better spent in down-ballot campaigns? when the superpacs do their political triage there's an tion to cut mitt romney loose. joining us now for "the inteiew," an evil da money ovrdedl on senior strategist for the pro-obama superpac, priorities usa action. bill, it's good to have you here. >> overlord is such a dirty word. >> it sounds better thant looks. it loo nice. >> ion'tnklos nit loud.

either. >> did i get the basic point right there about, about the money -- money outside the campaigns, money you've been raising and spending. it's at a disadvantage. you have to pay more for your time? >> the campaigns pay a much peten suac are able to pay. on the republican side, karl rove and the koch brothers have hundreds of millions of dollars so can put throwaway behind ads they're doing and can be up and have an impact. the truth is t campaigns are allowed to spend at a much cheaper value. >> knoat l distinction is that there's not supposed to be any coordination between pacs supporting a candidate. superpacs supporting a candidate and the candidates' campaign. here's the thing i don't undersnd i understand that means you casiwnh d axelrod and say, okay, we're all going to focus on bain. can't you just go second? can't you wait to see what the obama campaign is doing and copy them and backstop them.

>> this has been a big disadvantage for the rublican side. i feel bad for our counterparts yathene campaign, what do you think mitt romney's message and strategy is? there's a week in august where crossroads had an ad up about the debt. an ad up about jobs. americans for prosperity was advertising on solyndra. mitt romney was advertising on welfare rerm. if y're theersi tr tguutt they're trying to get across, you have no idea. welfare reform, $10 million behind that? seriously? >> the romnecampaign has had trouble stays on message, picking a message and sticking with it, which has been fun. if they could stick with it, couldn theand uldn you ce acp ev the campaign is doing, therefore colluding only in public by the virtue of the fact you were watching tv? >> right, you absolutely could. you ow, the truth is, you know, there's an ark of a story that you try to tell. so on our side, you watch what the obama campaign is doing. you watch what we're doing. e' ao ry' story.

he started in his business career as a guy who, you know, bought companies, fired workers, made millions of dollars. went to become the governor of massachusetts. didn do a great job. and here's what we wants to do for the country. mns e no story mside, the about mitt romney. there's one ad about the olympics over the course of the summer. the story they tell about barack obama is, well, he's all these bad things. and so if you're trying to figure out, well, what is it that, what's the strategy here? that you were watching tv? >> rhtyou soluly cld. knthut there is an arc of a story that you try to tell. there is an art to the story. he's a guy who has bought companies, fired workers, didn't do a great job and here is what he wants to do to for the country. on t republican side, there is no story about mitt romney. d the story they tell about ba o ill is all these bad things. if you are trying to figure out what is the strategy here? it is a lot more difficult on their side. the spending has been erratic and they are probably t having as big of an impact.

>> did you know that was the arc no matter what he did. did you have that mapped out? >> we started that in cember of last year. if he was going to make his businessism experience the center argument. we also knew that the ryan budget was the most toxic thing th he was associated with. >> you thought you wld b etor pked paul ryan. >> i'm giving myself fridays off. >> not quite fridays off but it did make the job more straight forward. and george thorus pledged more money to you today. why did he do that today and why didn't he do that before and what is the coequence of that? ditngerh enceth- democrats who gave to him, does it bring them out of the woodwork? >> is this the moment where we need to get involve snd. >> we are getting into this peri where you are at the last moment where big investments are voting in the ra. iowa is voting today. you ma invenn levion add ver advertisements. i think a lot of democrats are feeling the election is here and

even though mitt romney has not performed very well over the last two weeks, the president is barely knocking on 50% in the la two weeks. demoats are feeling the pressu and are ccern. heoprekibout giving maybe a seven figure donation, you were on the campaign side of it with normal donors years ago. are really rich people concerned about different things? you if were giving to the campaign or to the superpac. you were giving to the things that democrats feel stngly about. >> i hear you. q tasofn. your evil lordship. bill burton. good to see you man. still ahead tonight the best new thing in the world. now with 92% more world global indignation. best new thing in the new york. the day the president of iran addressed e un. this year was more exciting an us by this time next year, he will not be iran's president anymore. this was kind of it. the reason everyone gets excited this time of year is mr. ahmadined's speeches themselves, the reason we circle this week in red pen on the calendar every year, is not

eees, but the speck taable of everyone walking out on his speeches. they were packing up their papers and walking out why he was speaking. and it is more of that that we were looking forwardo this good to see you man. still ahead tonight the best new thing in the world. now with 92% more world global indignio d#805- s a w-st investing.

tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 at schwab, we're committed to offering you tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 low-cost investment options-- tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 like our exchange traded funds, or etfs tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 which now have the lowest tdd#: 800-345-2550 operating expenses tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 in their respective tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 lipper categories. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 lower than spdr tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 tdd#: 800-345-2550 and even lower than vanguard.

tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 that means with schwab, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 your portfolio has tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 a better chance to grow. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and you can trade all our etfs online, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 commission-free, from your schwab account. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 tdd#: 1-80345-2550 so let's talk about saving money, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 with schwab etfs. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 in their respective lipper categories. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 call 1-800-4schwab tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 or visit schwab.com tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 to open an account today. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 funding is easy tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 with schwab mobile deposit. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 invests should consider tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 carefully information tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 contained in the prospectus, td: 1-800-345-2550 including investment objtives, tdd#: 1-800-345-25 risks, charges, and expenses. u can obtain tdd#: 1-0-345-2550 : 0-25dd#: 1-800-345-25 osusving risks, charges, and expenses. www.schwab.com/schwabetfs. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 please read the prospectus tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 carefully before investing. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550

♪ [ male announcer ] every car we build ♪ to help you not just to stay alive... but feel alive. the new c class is no exception. it's a mercedes-benz through and through. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exceptional offe tghers- financial services. throughout our lives. one a day women's 50+ is a complete multivitamin designed for women's health concerns as we age. it has more of 7 antioxidants to support cell health. o d0+ best new thing in the new york. the day the president of iran addresd the un. this year was more exciting than usual. by this time next year, he will not be iran's prenanyme. this was kind of it. the reason everyone gets excited

this time of year is mr. ahmadinejad's speeches themselves, the reason we circle this week in red pen on the calendar every year, is not because of his offensive speeest specta of everyone walking out on his speeches. they were packing up their papers and walking out why he was speaking. and it is more of that that we were looking forward to this week. yeah, it is walk out on machmud . until we saw this. u.s. delegation will not attend. how can you do this to us? you cannot walk out if you are not sitting there. here is what it looked like on tv ding ahmadinejad'spee it doesn't have the same flare of getting up and storming out while he talks. the headlines this week said that canada's delegation walked

out. t we scoured the video and we can never find the footage of the canadians leaving. so whether it was a walk out or a boycott, this week was not the usual fun for the moment of international theater we have all come to know and love. for those of you who look forward to it. we have greatest hits. 2010 when first the united states started to go followed by aipathednd then 33 delegations walked out. even costa rica snubbed iran that year. in may 22 nations giving him the one fingeralute while he kept talking. fave,t haenedo ta them in front of his podium to the sound of much applause. he has another nine months in office.

so glad. so maybe we will get to celebrate walk out on ahmadinejad day. but until then, i take great comfort in showing him what we think of him to his face. i have to say there is the grave